Indiana ex-trooper David Camm's third murder trial expected to cost $1 million

NEW ALBANY, Ind. - A Southern Indiana county anticipates at least $1 million in expenses for the possible third trial of a former state trooper accused of killing his wife and two young children.

Some of that money could be needed to pay for a special prosecutor from another county after the state appeals court removed Floyd County Prosecutor Keith Henderson last week, ruling he had a conflict of interest because of his plan to write a book about the case.

Juries have twice convicted David Camm in the fatal shootings at the family's home near Georgetown in 2000. Those verdicts were overturned on appeals.

Floyd County Council President Ted Heavrin said the trials of Camm and another man in the deaths have already cost the county more than $3 million. The county council has set aside $1 million for another trial, although it might cost more than that, he said.

"This trial's important because of the people that got murdered," Heavrin told The News and Tribune.

The judge overseeing the Camm case has decided jurors would be brought in from another part of the state and sequestered during a new trial. Camm's first trial lasted for nine weeks, while the second went on for six weeks.

"It's going to cost extra money to bring them in, house them and the whole nine yards," Heavrin said. "If you have to sequester them, you have to feed them, pull security, buy them food."

Joel Schumm, a professor at the Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis, said he couldn't imagine a third trial being less expensive.

"The cost for the first two trials was very high — higher than even death penalty cases," he said.

The state attorney general's office has until mid-December to appeal the decision removing Henderson as prosecutor.

If a full-time prosecutor from another county is appointed to the case, Floyd County would have to pay that county for the prosecutor's time along with various expenses, said Steve Stewart, the prosecutor in neighboring Clark County. If a former county prosecutor or other attorney is picked to handle the case, Floyd County would pay that person directly at the hourly rate of a full-time prosecutor.

Camm's defense attorneys are being paid $90 an hour by the county — the minimum amount allowed by the state's public defender office.

Camm remains in prison. He's accused of killing Kimberly Camm and their children — 5-year-old Jill and 7-year-old Bradley — in September 2000, about four months after he resigned from the state police.